Introduction to the strategy
The ATO Superannuation information technology services incident communication strategy has been developed to complement the ATO business continuity plan (BCP) and provides further detail of how the ATO will respond in the event that ATO superannuation services are not performing as expected.
The ATO provides critical enabling services that the superannuation industry uses as part of their everyday operations.
This information provides the framework to achieving a consistent and timely approach to communication with the superannuation industry. It also defines the roles, responsibilities and steps the ATO will follow in order to provide prompt and effective communication with the superannuation industry during a system incident. The outcome is a pragmatic process which the industry participants can confidently rely upon in managing their services and relationships.
Scope of the strategy
This communication strategy covers incidents affecting the operation of ATO superannuation enabling services from when an incident is confirmed through to resolution.
Currently, the scope of this communication strategy is limited to services that are critical to the operation of superannuation funds. Services that are critical include:
- SuperTICK
- Fund Validation Service (FVS)
- SuperMatch
- Member Account Attribute Service (MAAS)
- Member Account Transaction Service (MATS)
- Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) – (this service will be closed from 1 July 2026)
- SMSF Verification Service (SVS)
- SMSFMemberTICK.
The strategy will complement the ATO’s business continuity plan, and the information provided can be used by the industry as part of their BCPs. This is not designed to replace existing arrangements or requirements by APRA.
Where there are incidents that affect other superannuation services, such as remittance advice and recovery runs and the Departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP) online system, the ATO will continue to issue CRT Alerts. To receive CRT alerts and Super funds newsletter subscribe to ATO newsletters and alertsExternal Link.
Other online services, such as Online Services for Business and Online Services for Agents will advertise system and performance issues via their own dashboards or maintenance pages.
Planned outages are currently communicated through the ATO Superannuation DashboardExternal Link and won’t be dealt with in this strategy.
Note: For printing purposes, the web address of the ATO Superannuation Dashboard is https://sses.status.ato.gov.au/External Link
ATO business continuity plan
We have a BCP in place which provides directions on assessing the risk and approach treatments during a system incident. We'll use the dashboard to inform industry of incidents, stand up a Super Response Group made up of a wide range of Government and industry stakeholders to provide input into its management and support communications.
Unplanned outage
An announcement is published to the ATO Superannuation DashboardExternal Link indicating we are aware of the outage and investigating (holding message).
The ATO Superannuation Dashboard will be updated as new information comes to hand. Notifications on the dashboard will include a time when the next update will be provided.
Dashboard subscribers will receive an email alert each time we publish a new announcement, prompting them to visit the dashboard to check the latest announcement.
If the outage is not resolved by 9:00 pm AEDT, a holding message will be placed on the dashboard, with a further update provided at 7:00 am AEDT.
If the outage is expected to continue for 24 hours or has continued for 24 hours, teleconferences for the Super Response Group are convened.
If the unplanned outage occurs during the weekend a SMS will be issued to out-of-hours contacts for the Super Response Group.
For incidents that are initiated in non-core hours, a communication message via the dashboard will be provided at 7:00 am.
When services resume a ATO Superannuation DashboardExternal Link announcement will be published.